


8 Days a Week

by bachelorgirl



Category: Shelter (2007)
Genre: Community: shelter_diner, M/M, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-13
Updated: 2011-02-13
Packaged: 2017-10-15 15:14:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/162134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bachelorgirl/pseuds/bachelorgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Between work, school and Cody, the boys don't have time for conventional romance. But, they do okay. (Written for the shelter_diner V-day challenge)</p>
            </blockquote>





	8 Days a Week

**Author's Note:**

> If the graphics below aren't appearing, please reload the page. If that doesn't work, send me an e-mail at bachelorgirl(at)gmail[dot]com and I'll try to remedy the situation. :)

[Monday]

Zach groaned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and blinked, looking around his bedroom and over at the alarm clock next to the bed. 10:00am. It was a late day – no classes until noon – and he had been so tired when he'd gotten home late last night that he'd fallen into bed without eating dinner and hadn't even heard a sound as everyone else woke up around him.

Stretching, Zach felt his shoulder joints protest and he briefly debated going back to bed, but his sense of responsibility eventually won out and he reluctantly rolled out of bed. He shuffled down the hall, pulling a t-shirt over his head as he walked and tightened the drawstring on his pajama pants, smiling when he noticed the note stuck to the refrigerator door.

Zach opened the fridge and found breakfast - and lunch - waiting for him. There was a large plate filled with a small stack of tortilla shells and a few bowls covered with plastic wrap, filled with chopped up peppers and onions, Shaun's homemade salsa (with extra cilantro), sour cream, spicy sausage, and – hidden at the back – a bowl of scrambled eggs. The ones that Shaun made with sour cream and cream cheese and black pepper that somehow always stayed fluffy, even when Zach microwaved them hours after Shaun made them.

Zach turned on the radio and hummed along while he assembled his breakfast with one hand and flipped through the newspaper that Shaun had left, neatly folded, beside the fridge – minus the comics page, which was, as usual, in a messy heap on the kitchen table - with the other hand.

Shaved and showered, breakfast eaten, and dishes rinsed and stacked in the dishwasher, Zach had more than enough time to grab the leftover pizza that Shaun had packed up for lunch (bacon, sausage, extra cheese - his favorite), scribble a couple of notes to leave for Shaun and Cody, program the DVR, and quickly let the dog out. This, unfortunately, meant that he also had more than enough time to take out the trash on his way to school.

Zach hated taking out the trash. But, Shaun hated taking out the trash even more than Zach did, and it would probably make Shaun happy if the trash magically transported itself out of the apartment while he was at work. And it wasn't like Zach didn't walk right past the dumpster on the way to his car. And, besides, the breakfast burritos this morning were really, really good. It seemed like the least he could do.

So, Zach sucked it up and sorted the trash, separating out the recyclables from the bottles that could be returned for cash (a rather large number of empty beer bottles, with a few wine bottles mixed in for good measure) and the large piles of newspaper and junk mail that could be recycled, from everything else.

Zach picked up his phone and fired off a text message before he climbed into his car and headed for school, smiling to himself as he pictured the reaction Shaun was going to have to Zach reminding him what happened the last time he had taken Cody to swim class.

[Tuesday]

Shaun sighed as he climbed into the shower. Despite Zach's warning that he shouldn't wait up, he'd fallen asleep on the sofa the night before, waiting for Zach to get home from his late night at the art studio. And, this morning, he was definitely feeling the effects of the poor choice of sleeping accommodations in his neck and his right hip. The hot water felt good. The soap and rough texture of the washcloth felt even better.

He tried not to lament how old it made him feel that, after half a night of sleeping on his once-comfortable sofa, he felt like he had the joints of an 85 year old. Considering how out-of-synch his schedule and Zach's had been lately, he was really going to have to consider listening to Zach and not keep waiting up for him. Or, he was going to have to buy a sofa that was considerably more comfortable. Either or.

He stood under the spray for so long that his fingertips started to become pruned and his skin was reddened from head to toe, but he could finally feel his sore muscles starting to relax.

The bathroom was full of steam and Shaun reached blindly for a towel before stepping out of the shower. He could hear the sound of the dog waiting not-so-patiently on the other side of the door, but Shaun was going to wait until he was a hell of a lot more dressed before he opened the door and let any of the precious steam escape from the little sauna he had created.

It was only when the steam had started to clear while he brushed his teeth that Shaun noticed the mirror.

There was a round, cartoon heart with chubby wings flying in the middle of the mirror, with the words 'Happy Tuesday' scribbled in a messy graffiti-type scrawl underneath. Somehow, these were the only parts of the mirror that weren't completely covered in fog.

Shaun’s amused smile was so big that he could see it crinkling the skin around his eyes in the mirror. Happy Tuesday, indeed.

Shaun was shaving the stubble from his chin when he heard his cell phone vibrating on his dresser.

Shaun couldn't help but laugh at the mental image of Zach painting the bathroom mirror with toothpaste. He had no idea where Zach had discovered that toothpaste would stop the bathroom mirror from fogging up, but it didn't surprise him at all that Zach had somehow turned that piece of knowledge into an art project. It was also somewhat reassuring to have an explanation for why his bathroom had smelled particularly minty-fresh that morning.

While Shaun finished shaving, he tried to figure out how he could re-arrange his schedule in order to be home in time to pick Cody up from school and tag along with Zach and Cody on their errands. And, then maybe take them out for burgers or pizza afterwards, if he could convince Zach to step away from his never-ending string of school projects long enough to enjoy a meal. He had all day to come up with a plan, though, and he was sure that he would think of something. If all else failed, he supposed he could just invent a great-aunt who was taken gravely ill and needed his attention. Or, he could quit. He was pondering the merits of faking a back injury - probably hard to do with a desk job - at precisely 2:55pm and taking off for the day when his phone, now shoved in the back pocket of his jeans, began vibrating again.

Shaun sighed. Of course Zach would pick up a shift in the middle of one of the busiest weeks of his school year. Lecture classes were having midterms and studio classes had deadlines and Shaun still hadn't been able to make Zach believe that he didn't have to pull himself in 14 different directions all the time. Shaun *wanted* to buy shoes for Cody. And take them out to dinner. And, just buy all sorts of random shit for Zach, like that new set of paintbrushes, just because he could. But, instead of calling Zach that and reminding him of that for the three-thousandth time since Zach and Cody had moved to Los Angeles with him, he picked up his phone and left a message with his assistant at the magazine,informing her that she should re-direct all of his faxes for the day, since he would be working from home.

As he finished getting dressed, Shaun looked down at Squidward – he really regretted introducing Cody to the world of 'Spongebob Squarepants' every time he had to yell his dog's name in public - who was waiting patiently at his feet. "So, you and me, huh?" Squid wagged his tail in response. "Fine. But, don't try and con me into another trip to the toy store on our way home. Last time you and Cody turned the puppydog eyes on me, you cost me $300 and Zach told me I was being a softie. Today, we're going directly to the vet and coming home again. No detours."

The dog, obviously, did not respond. "Fine. We'll talk about it later. Just let me tell Zach that he's free to continue trying to save the world on his own and we'll go for a run on the beach. And, after that, I'll stop talking to the dog and sit down and do some work. And, you can get on with your busy schedule of sleeping and rearranging your dog toys all over the living room, deal?"

[Wednesday]

Zach tiptoed as quietly as he could down the hall, trying not to wake up any of the sleeping people in his house. Cody could usually be counted on to sleep through almost anything, but he knew that Shaun had an early morning and he had been a pretty light sleeper the last few weeks. Zach moved slowly, carefully preserving the stillness that had settled over the apartment.

Until Zach stubbed his toe against the doorframe on his way out of the bathroom and back into his bedroom and couldn't help the involuntary string of profanity that poured from his mouth. It was kind of the perfect end to a perfectly craptacular day that started with a voicemail from Jeanne saying that she didn't think she was going to be back in town for Dad's birthday and she hoped that Zach didn't mind, and had ended with his Form and Figure professor announcing that they actually had to complete _four_ , not three, works for their term project. And this was all before he'd damned near broken his fucking toe on the doorframe.

Zach stilled when he saw Shaun stir under the covers. It was silly, really, that he held his breath while he made sure that Shaun rolled back over and went to sleep. But, he knew that Shaun had to be up early to get to work and he really didn't want to wake him.

Carefully, Zach peeled out of his paint-covered clothes, down to his underwear, and climbed into bed. He had successfully managed to get into bed and settle under the covers without waking Shaun and was just starting to feel his eyelids get heavy when all of his tip-toeing around became irrelevant. Zach felt the earth move and he heard some low rumbling, followed by two loud thuds and the sound of breaking glass.

Beside him, Shaun started awake. "The hell...?" His voice was thick and scratchy.

"Fucking earthquake, I think. I felt the floor shake." Zach stretched and leaned back against where he knew Shaun would be.

"You okay?" Shaun asked.

"Yeah, fine. I'll see what's broken in the morning." Zach relaxed back against Shaun, who had curled up behind him. He blinked at the alarm clock. The morning was coming way too soon.

Cody?" Shaun asked.

"Really fucking hoping he didn't wake up." Zach closed his eyes. "He always slept through earthquakes in SP. If we’re lucky, he didn't even notice.”

"Zach? Shaun?" Cody's voice was very small, coming from the direction of the doorway.

"Or not,” Zach mumbled and cleared his throat, visions of comforting Cody eating away into his already shortened sleeping schedule. “How's it going, little man?" Zach's jaw clicked with the large yawn that followed those words.

"My soccer trophy fell off the desk. And there is glass broken on the floor, too." The sound of Cody kicking the doorframe was loud in the now silent room.

"You want to come on in, buddy?" Shaun asked before Zach had a chance to. Zach felt Shaun’s fingers gently stroke through the hair on the back of his neck as he pulled back to make room in the bed.

Cody shuffled across the carpet and Zach could hear the slight jingling of Squidward's collar and quiet panting as he followed Cody across the room and they both hopped into bed.

"Oof!" Zach heard Shaun grunt as both Cody and Squidward landed half on top of Shaun as they settled into the bed. Zach was careful not to kick the dog when he lay down on Zach's feet at the bottom of the bed and he slid over a little to make more room for Cody between Shaun and himself.

"You good, Code?" Shaun asked. Zach heard what he thought was a muffled "Yeah" in response. "Cool. Hey, can I put this on the table next to the bed until morning? You can keep the other one, though."

Zach didn't roll over, but he could hear and feel Cody hand something over to Shaun followed by the soft clunk as whatever it was got placed on the nightstand. "Sweet dreams, Code."

"Night Shaun. Night Zach." Surprisingly, Zach felt Cody burrow down into the blankets between the two of them and could feel the soft press of Cody's favorite stuffed toy digging into his back.

"Night Cody," Zach was already half-asleep, the long hours of the last few days catching up with him. It was so easy to relax. To relax and let go and let Shaun just be there and be Shaun. At first, it had been so unsettling, how unruffled Shaun was by everything from Zach's life that came his way and how willing he was just to help _fix_ things. Now, it was reassuring. There was comfort in Shaun’s consistency.

It took about 3 minutes for Cody to fall asleep and Zach wasn't too far behind. He was pretty sure that Shaun had already fallen back asleep, until he felt Shaun's arm reach over Cody and slide around Zach's waist in a loose hug. Shaun's fingers were warm against his skin, with the calluses on his fingertips slightly rough as Zach concentrated on the feeling of Shaun's fingers purposefully tracing smooth, soft lines across his stomach. Zach was just about to give into sleep when he reached up and put his hand on top of Shaun’s, tangling their fingers together and feeling his lips curve into a small, relaxed smile.

[Thursday]

When Shaun's alarm went off the next morning, he wanted to throw the alarm clock against the wall and pretend that the outside world didn't exist. He did not, however, do either of those things. He quickly turned off his alarm and untangled himself from the sheets and the people that were wrapped around him. Six-fifteen was way too close to 3am for Shaun to really enjoy be excited about getting out of bed after an earthquake. The fact that every other member of his household (human, canine, and favorite stuffed toy) was still curled up in a giant heap on the bed made it that much harder to leave. He deserved a fucking medal.

Shaun sometimes regretted that his day job at the magazine interfered with what he really did for a living. And, with his life. But, then he looked again at the two boys sleeping in his bed and realized just how much better his life had become since he’d taken the job as a copy editor that he hadn’t really wanted, but that had sort of changed his entire life. There was a new job, new friends, a new apartment, a new dog, a new boyfriend and a new kid. Almost nothing in his new life was the same as his old life and Shaun was grateful for that every day.

Sitting on the table next to his bed, like it belonged there too, was the framed photo that Cody had brought to bed with him last night after the earthquake. The glass had broken, probably when it had fallen off of Cody’s desk, and the picture was half-obscured by the cracks. As he headed for the bathroom on the opposite side of the apartment, Shaun made a mental note to stop on the way home from work and pick up a new frame for the picture. He didn’t think he’d ever been important enough to someone, other than his mother, that they would sleep with a photo of him. Shaun was damned sure he was going to make sure he lived up to all of that responsibility.

That picture definitely deserved a new frame, anyway.

As Shaun pulled into the parking lot at work, his cell phone beeped at him that he had 2 new messages. Odd, since he hadn't heard his phone ring, but he picked up the phone, called his voicemail, tucked it under his ear and grinned when the voice over the phone was Cody's.

"Zach says you're probably driving so we can't call you, but he said I could leave a message. Do you think we could rent a movie tonight? I was thinking that after the last time we watched movies and you said --" Shaun heard Cody's voice fade as Zach, presumably, dragged the phone away from Cody. ""What Cody means to say is that he's really excited for you guys to have movie night while I'm at the restaurant tonight."

Shaun grinned and made a mental note to grab a couple of DVDs on the way home and skipped to the next message, left 10 minutes after Cody's message, probably while Cody was brushing his teeth and getting ready for school. In the background, Shaun could hear dishes rattling - Zach was obsessed with loading the dishwasher - and the indistinct sound of the radio.

"Hey Shaun. I can't believe you left without waking me up this morning, dude. I hope Cody didn’t kick you too much last night, you know he does that sometimes. I saw that he left that picture on the nightstand, I took the broken glass out of the frame and put it back in his room until I can fix it, but the picture didn't get damaged, which is really lucky because otherwise he would probably be sulking or crying or something and not singing the Sesame Street theme song while he’s looking for his indoor shoes. Cody! Are you almost done packing your stuff into your backpack? We have to leave in about 30 seconds, kiddo!” Shaun smiled as he imagined the entire scenario in his head. He could picture it perfectly. “I think we need to take another picture of all of us sometime before Cody gets old enough that he's embarrassed to get his picture taken with us in public places. And, hey, I forgot to tell you that Gabe called. I think he's planning to come to town next weekend. Or, maybe the weekend after that. I couldn't really tell from his message, but it probably doesn't matter since he didn't actually ask if we were free. Apparently we're supposed to, quote, put on some clothes and prepare for a weekend of living it up with Gabe and his homo homies. Sometimes, I'm glad that you're the one that's actually related to him. Do you think your mom would look after Cody that weekend? Even though he seems to want to make sure that you and I aren’t naked when he arrives, I have a feeling most of what Gabe has planned probably isn’t kid-friendly. Anyway, I guess I should get going if both Cody and me are going to get to school on time today. I really hope that there's not fucking traffic on the --. Anyway. Talk to you later or whatever. Miss you."

Shaun grinned at the excitement in Zach's voice. Shaun would put up with all of his brother’s shit even if he didn’t love him, just for the excitement that he could hear in Zach’s voice. He was pretty sure his mother would jump at the chance to watch Cody. He figured he could tell Zach that he could start Gabe-proofing the apartment for his visit any time.

Shaun had just tucked his phone into the pocket of his jacket when it started to ring. He wasn't sure it was his phone, at first, because he was pretty sure that he would remember if he'd suddenly been overcome with the need to change his ringtone to a poppy dance beat with a perky girl singing about punctuation. However, it was midway through the second chorus that Shaun realized he'd been focusing so hard on the lyrics to the song that he had totally forgotten to answer the phone.

It was a fairly common thing, actually, Shaun not recognizing his own phone when it rang. Zach made a hobby out of changing Shaun's ringtone. At first, the song selection had seemed random, but the longer the game had been going on, Shaun had realized that there was usually a method to Zach's madness. And, usually, the song had some relationship to Zach or Shaun's day. Sometimes, the connection was obvious and sometimes Shaun wasn’t able to figure it out on his own, but, with a little prodding, Zach would let him in on the connection.

At first, today's song had caught his attention because it was so unlike most of the songs Zach usually picked, but it was the lyrics that had made him forget to answer the phone.

Shaun made one last call to his voicemail where the message started with the sound of Zach laughing and he could tell from the background rumbling that Zach was probably in his car. "You were listening to your new ringtone instead of answering the phone, weren't you? The girl singing is this crazy artist-singer-musician chick who used to work in, of all places, Portland, that Anna in my studio class is completely obsessed with and she made me listen to that album on repeat for, like, three hours in the studio the other day. But, that song really is awesome and it kind of made me think about stuff and, well. It's kind of, I don't know, whatever, and. Yeah." Shaun heard Zach clear his throat, embarrassed. "Anyway, the reason I was actually calling was I heard this other song and thought of you and, yeah..."

Zach's voice faded away and the sounds of the car radio got louder in his ear. Shaun heard the familiar chords of his favorite song start up in the background and he found himself singing along as he walked, phone in one hand, extra large coffee in the other towards another day in the office, hoping for a short one. Zach's embarrassed voice at trying to explain why a quirky love song about a show of affection was the chosen ringtone of the moment made Shaun wish, again, that he hadn't had to get out of bed this morning and made him realize that he really wanted to get home more than 10 minutes before Zach left for the closing shift at the restaurant.

[Friday]

Zach's alarm didn't go off and he only realized it when he rolled over and saw the alarm clock read 9am. He reached over and pushed the button and it appeared that someone, likely named Shaun, had reset it to go off at 9:30. Which was, coincidentally, the latest Zach could get up and still comfortably have time to make it to school before his first class. Zach also noticed Shaun had left him a short note.

Zach could hear sounds from the television making their way down the hallway, which probably meant that Cody was up, too. A teaching conference at school meant a three-day-weekend for Cody and an extra day of paying Jake's mom to look after Cody for Zach. Zach had meant to only lay down and sleep for an hour or two, but after a long week of burning the midnight oil, it just hadn't happened.

"What's up, Codes?" Zach asked, finding Cody, still dressed in his Spongebob pajamas, buried under a large blanket, a sleeping dog and the most gigantic bowl of cereal Zach had ever seen in his life. It looked like Star Wars was on the television - again - and Cody was deeply engrossed in the action.

"Star Wars? Again?" Zach laughed. "How are you not tired of this movie, yet?" He hopped over the back of the couch and landed next to Cody with a thud.

"It rocks, duh. And, Shaun said that I was supposed to be quiet until you woke up."

Zach could barely make out the words around Cody’s mouth full of spoon and cereal.

"He did, did he? What are you coloring?"

"Shaun printed it off the computer before he left," Cody explained, passing the paper over to Zach. "He said that he left you breakfast in the kitchen," Cody replied, taking the picture back and pulling out a green marker from the basket beside him.

"Do you need anything before I head off to school?" Zach asked.

Cody shook his head and resumed coloring. "Nope. I had breakfast. I took Squidward outside and then Shaun helped me make breakfast. And, we packed some stuff into my Spiderman backpack to take to Jake's house," Cody pointed toward the door, where his backpack was waiting beside his shoes.

It was just like Shaun, to get Cody up ready for the day and give him enough markers and paper – not to mention starting the longest movie that had ever held Cody' attention - to keep him occupied until Shaun woke up. Cody was pretty good at entertaining himself, but Shaun always made it so he didn't have to. That, and trying to make sure that Zach slept enough, were among the many things that Shaun was good at.

Zach made his way to the kitchen where, sitting on the counter next to the toaster was a plate with 2 slices of bread - sunflower, Shaun's newest obsession - along with a bowl of cereal, a banana, and a bowl of the same chopped walnuts and cranberries that Cody had mixed in with his cereal and an empty glass, just waiting to be filled. And, sure enough, when Zach checked, he found the pitcher from the blender in the fridge, filled with a homemade fruit and yogurt smoothie, probably blueberry and something, if Zach had to guess, based on the color. All food groups, present and accounted for. As usual.

"Alright, dude. 10 minutes then we're going to drop you off at Jake's house, so you're going to have to put on some actual clothes,” Zach called to Cody, grabbing the smoothie and the milk out of the fridge and digging though the basket on the counter, looking for a pen.

[Saturday]

Shaun jolted awake as Cody came flying in the bedroom and landed with a thump directly on top of both Shaun and Zach, who were tangled together in the middle of the bed.

"It's 7:01!" Cody announced, bouncing up and down on the bed on his knees.

"Yes it is, big guy." Shaun smiled back at him.

"You know, I think it was better when you couldn't tell time," Zach said, his voice muffled as he buried his face in the space between his pillow and Shaun's shoulder. "Couldn't 'sometime after 7:00' have been closer to noon?'

Shaun smiled and kissed the top of Zach's head.

"It is 7:00 and we have a date, don't we?" Shaun looked at Cody, who was practically vibrating with excitement.

Cody nodded enthusiastically and tugged on Shaun's hand until Shaun was compelled to untangle himself from Zach and sit up to give Cody the attention he demanded.

"So, what are we going to do today?" Shaun asked, pretending he didn’t already know the answer.

"Well, first, breakfast. French toast!" Cody leapt up and bounced back and forth along the foot of the bed.

"French toast? Are you going to help?" Shaun waited and watched as Cody nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, and then?" Shaun couldn't help egging him on, just a little.

"We have to go buy paint for Zach." Cody announced, as if it were obvious. Which it was, because it was the same thing they did every Saturday morning.

"No, we really don't." Zach's voice was muffled into the pillow.

"And, then," Cody continued, as if Zach hadn't spoken. "Surfing!" With that last word, Cody flung himself across the bed and crawled on top of Zach.

"Surfing? You didn't do enough of that last weekend?" Shaun asked, grabbing Cody by the waist and lifting him up and placing him gently on the floor beside the bed.

"No, silly! Last weekend we went to the pool. There was lightning, remember? We had to stay inside." He shoved at Shaun. "And, then, hamburgers." Cody tugged at Shaun's hand, trying to pull him out of bed.

"Are you going to be hungry for hamburgers? After all of the French toast?" Cody’s look of indignation forced Shaun to bite down on the inside of his lip to keep from laughing out loud.

"For dinner, Shaun." Cody looked at him like his logic was bulletproof.

"Dinner time? And just how long do you think we're going to be at the beach for?" Shaun asked, tilting his head at Cody and allowing himself to laugh in amusement.

"ALL. DAY." Cody giggled and bounced up and down, tugging on Shaun's hand. "Come on, we're going to be late."

"Tell you what. You go and hang out in the living room until the clock says 7:30 and you can be in charge of all the schedules for the rest of the day until dinner time. 6:00." Shaun winked at Cody, who squealed and bounced out of the room with excitement, Squidward barking at his heels.

"You really don't have to do all this, Shaun. I'm sure I can find Cody something else- "

Shaun cut him off with a palm on his mouth. "Don't even start with me, Zach. I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks and this is tradition. You and me and the munchkin at the beach, and the art store and eating burgers and you are going to be stuck with me and him and this tradition until the day that I die. Or, at least until the day Cody gets himself a girlfriend and finds something better to do with his Saturdays. You, however, don't have an escape clause. Got it?" Shaun said, wrapping his arms around Zach and murmuring the last words against his lips.

Zach grinned against his mouth. "Got it."

"Besides, I think you still need at least 80 more of those fancy oil paints and you're not going to be able to expand your collection from the apartment." Shaun said with a grin.

Shaun couldn't really remember how their Saturday tradition had begun, but it had quickly become his favorite part of the week. The first time he had gone to Zach's favorite art store with him, he'd seen him eyeing the extensive (and expensive) oil paint set like a kid in a candy store. Shaun had offered to buy it for him, and then had offered to lend Zach the money. It was not surprising that Zach had refused both offers. Shaun had just shrugged and picked out a color called King's Blue that had reminded him of the ocean and marched up to the register, buying Zach the first color in an ever-expanding collection.

"You realize that there really are at least 80 more in that set, right?" Zach asked, inching closer to Shaun, wrapping his arms around him and burrowing into him.

"Like I said, this tradition's not going anywhere. But, unfortunately, today we are, dude. We have exactly 23 minutes until we have 40 pounds of impatient, hungry child leaping back into bed with us and I really don't want to start something we can't finish." Shaun smiled and quickly kissed Zach on the mouth. "Later, okay?"

The frustrated sigh that came from Zach would have almost been comical, if it weren't for the fact that Shaun was feeling the same way.

Shaun felt Zach push himself out of bed. He leaned over, gave Shaun a quick kiss and said. "I'll go whip up the stuff for French toast. You check the surf reports, I have a feeling we might have to drive for some good waves today."

Shaun smiled to himself as he watched Zach head out to the living room to find Cody and reached for his laptop.

[Sunday]

Zach grinned as he tiptoed quietly back into the bedroom. He smiled at the sprawled heap Shaun had made in the bed while Zach had showered. Typical of hung-over Shaun after a really good night of partying, really.

Zach had glanced at the clock when Shaun had come home from the party/meeting/schmooze-fest with the book publisher last night. It was just after 4:30am and Shaun had been unsteady on his feet and his clumsy rifling through the drawers had woken Zach up.

Shaun had climbed into bed, wrapped himself around Zach and buried his head in the space between Zach's shoulder and his neck and murmured something unintelligible about the party that night before he quickly fell asleep. Zach figured he would hear all about Shaun's adventures either by email sometime today or in person tomorrow morning. He was sorry that he'd missed it, Cody's babysitter had come down with a raging stomach flu an hour before she was supposed to come and give Zach and Shaun the night off from parenting duties, so Zach had stayed home with Cody.

Shaun had almost stayed home as well, until Zach had reminded him that (a) they could go places and do things by themselves sometimes. Two, that it was the celebration party for his new book getting a publication date and a signed contract and, as the author, he really should show up for that shit and, thirdly, that there was still going to be the book release party and there was no goddamned way that Zach was missing that one, so they could go and buy Cody a suit later this week so they would be prepared if they didn't have a babysitter and they could just dress Cody up and bring him along next time.

Shaun, of course, had then decided that they should just bring Cody with them _this time_ and Zach had smiled at him and shoved him towards the shower. "Next time, Shaun. Go, play with your friends. Get trashed. Have a few drinks for me. Take the night off from being a grown-up and take a cab home. I have studying to do anyway, big test on Monday. I promise I'll be there for the next one, okay?"

It had taken a lot of convincing to get Shaun out the door without him, but in the end he had, (late, of course. Shaun had looked really fucking good in the first suit he'd put on, and he hadn't really budgeted the time for the second shower he'd had to take after they left the first suit in a crumpled, sweaty pile on the bedroom floor) and it seemed like he'd had a hell of a good night once he’d convinced himself to go to the party.

Zach put a full glass of water on the nightstand next to brand new bottles of Aleve and Dramamine. He grabbed the nearest piece of paper he could find - which turned out to be the back of the memo from the superintendent informing them that they were going to be checking the smoke alarms next week, so be prepared not to sleep in past 9am next Wednesday - and scribbled a quick note for Shaun on his way out the door.

[Monday]

"Honey, I'm home!" Shaun's voice came from the front door and woke Zach up with a start. He hadn't even realized he'd fallen asleep on the sofa until he was woken up.

"Shaun! Look what I did at school today!" Cody went running down the hall, carrying the large coat-hanger sculpture he had made at school.

Zach pushed himself into a sitting position, though he was sure that there was creases from the sofa pillows on his face that gave away his nap.

Shaun and Cody came into the living room, Shaun carrying Cody on one hip with an arm wrapped around his waist, and with a couple of large bags in the other. He smiled when he saw Zach and he walked over and bent down and gave Zach a quick kiss.

"Your marathon of projects and mid-terms finally all done?" Shaun asked with a bright smile.

"Yeah. Damn near killed me. Fuc-- Uh. I mean, I'm going to be so happy not be in the studio or in the library for hours and hours and hours every day. I am ready for a break."

"Are you ready for dinner? I slaved over the take-out menu all afternoon," Shaun said, dumping Cody onto the sofa next to Zach and holding up the bags.

"Now you're talking my language," Zach said, quickly squeezing Cody's shoulders and pushing himself up off of the sofa. Standing in front of Shaun, Zach smiled and wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug, kissing the side of his neck.

"I'm glad to be home," Zach said against the side of Shaun's neck. "Missed you."

"Your home is glad to have you back." Shaun's arms tightened around Zach. "Love you, too."

Zach smiled as Shaun kissed him lightly on the mouth and he temporarily forgot how hungry he was, how tired he was, and how long it had been since it had been him and Shaun and everything had just been relaxed. He felt everything else in the universe melt away, until he felt Cody wrap himself around his leg. With another quick kiss, Zach pulled back and looked down at Cody and ruffled his hair. "Dinner time, big guy?" And he grinned back at Cody's enthusiastic "Yes!" and watched him run towards the kitchen.

After a late, relaxed dinner of pizza and root beer for Cody and braised lamb with roasted potatoes and a very, very expensive bottle of red wine - a gift from Shaun's literary agent - for Shaun and Zach, they packed Cody off to bed and found themselves, settled on the sofa, with the tv off, the lights down low, with Zach laying with his head in Shaun's lap.

"You know, I'm thinking of quitting the magazine." Shaun said, casually, taking a sip of wine.

"Oh," Zach looked up at him.

"Yeah. I mean, with the publishing deal for the new book finalized and, you know, the occasional money I still make from the first one, and now that I signed that contract for the next one... It seems more than doable. It was already doable before the advance on the next one, but, you know, it's in a different class of doable now." Shaun combed his fingers through Zach's hair.

"You know? Maybe we don't need to be a three-income family anymore. Between my writing and your job at the restaurant and the magazine-editing, not to mention your school work, we're like two ships passing in the night all the time and we never see each other and, I don't know, I thought..."

Zach nodded and started thinking about the logistics of what Shaun was proposing.

"And, besides, just think of how much money we'll save on child care if we don't have to keep paying Donna to look after Cody when we're running around like headless chickens. Working from home sounds kind of like the perfect solution." It was like Shaun could see the mental math that Zach was doing and had already thought of the solution.

"Although," Shaun continued, "I really actually like my job at the magazine, and I think Angela would kill me if I abandoned her, because she'd probably have to go and work for Richard and my hours there are really flexible anyway, and I know they would let me work from home almost exclusively, which would mean I could still be home for Cody after school without quitting and..."

"Shaun..." Zach had realized about halfway through where Shaun was going with this. "I'm not quitting my job at the restaurant."

"You at least have to acknowledge that you could and that we would be fine if you did, you know. We would even be fine if you did and we sent Cody off to private school and we moved to a bigger apartment and you could just focus on your art during the day and you wouldn't have to rush off to work at all hours and pull yourself in a million different directions."

"I like this apartment," Zach replied. It was easier to focus on the small details and not let himself think about what Shaun was suggesting.

"But you never spend any time in it," Shaun replied with a small smile. "I bet you'd like it even more if you got to spend more time here."

"I bet I probably would," Zach conceded.

"Just think. Tonight, you and me, a bottle of wine, the kid's in bed, worn out from swim class, and we've got nothing but time. We could do this tomorrow night, too. Wednesday's a bit of a write off, but you wouldn't have to feel guilty about not being home during your late night class if you were home the other nights. And you wouldn't have to figure out who at the restaurant can switch with you every time they put you on the Wednesday dinner schedule. And, Thursday, you and me could take Cody to his soccer games and go out for pizza afterwards, you know. Friday, we could pawn the kid off onto a friend for a sleepover and you and me could go catch some night waves down by the pier. Or, if I was working from home, you and I could go back to bed after we get the kidlet off to school or we could catch some morning waves before you go off to class. You know, instead of working 8 days a week, we could plan for a little bit of fun time.” Shaun paused for a moment and looked down at Zach.

“You’re in school full time. You have a kid, and you have me. Trust me, your plate is way more than full. We’re a team, you and me. And, sometimes pooling your resources isn’t just about the money, you know. It’s the other stuff, too. Like time. And, energy. You should have time for a little bit of fun every now and then. You deserve it, you know. We all do. And Cody and I would love to be able to spend some of that time with you, you know. Family-friendly fun time and, you know, grown up fun time.”

Zach laughed and looked up at Shaun. “I like the sound of that.” He really did. Sometimes, it really did seem like he and Shaun could go days without spending any significant amount of time together, with Cody and without him. Zach reached up to where he could feel Shaun’s fingers running through his hair and grasped hold of his fingers. He rested Shaun’s hand on his stomach and played with Shaun’s fingers to distract himself from what Shaun was offering. It seemed like more than he should be willing to take.

“Okay, I have an idea,” Shaun announced abruptly and Zach heard him put his wine glass down on the coffee table and could feel Shaun shifting around on the sofa underneath him. When he finally settled, he wrapped his fingers around the hand Zach was holding, stilling Zach’s fidgeting.

“Here’s the deal. Heads, I quit the magazine, tails, you quit the restaurant.”

Zach blinked up at Shaun. “You’re serious?”

“Well, we could do best two-out-of-three with rock, paper, scissors.” Shaun sounded like he was actually serious. “ Or arm wrestling?”

“You’d seriously use a coin flip to decide if you quit your job?” Zach blinked up at him.

“I can’t think of a more objective way. Each of us has a 9 to 5 job, I work at the magazine and you go to school. And, each of us has an after-school job. You work at the restaurant, I write stuff that sometimes ends up in books. Something has to give and you know we’ve been avoiding this conversation for a long time. And, you know, this way I figure there’s actually a 50% chance of stopping you from burning out before you even finish art school. Instead of the 0% chance that I seem to have of convincing you that you should quit the job that you don’t like and concentrate on your school and your family, you know, the parts of your life that you *do* like.” Shaun smiled at him. “I told you that you didn’t have to be the responsible one all the time anymore, remember? And, besides, I think I’d like the opportunity to stop having a relationship with your cell phone and the post-it notes on the kitchen counter. It’s a small sacrifice.”

Zach opened his mouth to try to reason with Shaun, to explain. He didn’t want to be dependent on Shaun while he still didn’t know what his future was going to be. “You know, I mean, if the art thing…” He didn’t know if he was ever going to be able to make it in art - even part-time – and who knew what was going to happen in the future and he didn’t want Shaun to have to be responsible for Zach chasing a dream with an uncertain end.

“Then we’ll cross the bridge of what you do after you finish art school at a more appropriate time. Like, after you finish art school.” Shaun shrugged. He really did make things seem so easy.

“So, what’ll it be? Coin toss or rock paper scissors?” Shaun waved the coin slowly in front of Zach’s face. Zach knew that it was an out. One last chance for Zach to outright refuse Shaun’s plan. Which, if he was honest with himself, he hadn’t done so far.

Zach took a deep breath and clenched his jaw. “Coin toss.” He felt the butterflies in his stomach start to do cartwheels.

Zach could see Shaun actively trying to disguise his surprise. “Alright then. Heads for me, tails for you. Ready?”

Zach nodded. “As I’ll ever be.” He took a deep breath and blinked slowly.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Shaun’s hand moving out of the corner of his eye and then glimpsed the flash of silver as the coin flipped in the air above his head. Then, without thinking, Zach reached up and grabbed the coin out of the air and shoved it into the pocket of his jeans without looking at it.

“Zach wh--“ Shaun started and Zach shook his head.

“Fine. You win.” He almost scared himself with how much he actually meant it.

“What?” Shaun blinked down at him in shock.

“You win. I’ll quit the restaurant. Focus on the good stuff.”

“Serious?”

Zach nodded and Shaun burst into the biggest grin that Zach had seen on his face in a long, long time. Zach then found himself having to sit up a little bit on the sofa as Shaun scooted out from under his shoulders and settled on top of him.

"Is this the grown up fun time?" Zach asked, looking up at Shaun and he couldn’t help but laugh. He felt almost weightless.

Shaun laughed and kissed him hard, nodding at the same time.

Zach smiled back against Shaun’s lips, wrapped his arms tight around him, and let the world around them fall away.

[Epilogue]

  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to redkid.net, sellturnkey.com, txt2pic.com, images.google.com, microsoft paint, picnik.com and ctrl+prt sc to create the random graphics.


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